New Concepts in Printmaking 2: Willie Cole

The first New York museum showing of work by Willie Cole (United States, b. 1955) opens at The Museum of Modern Art on June 9, 1998. Preoccupied with the steam iron as a domestic, symbolic, and artistic object since the mid-1980s, Cole uses hot irons to scorch figurative and abstract forms onto surfaces ranging from paper and canvas to mattress padding and plaster, exploring issues of race, history, and his own African-American heritage. The exhibition comprises some 20 works created in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Also included are several sculptures created with parts of irons.

"The scorches from the surfaces of the irons take on mask-like appearances in these works while concurrently suggesting the African ritual of scarification," said Wendy Weitman, Associate Curator, Department of Prints and Illustrated Books, who organized the exhibition. "Cole has expanded the boundaries of printmaking to accommodate his creative fusion of materials and meaning."

Cole has said that irons played a part in his own heritage, growing up in Newark with a mother and grandmother who worked as housekeepers and frequently asked him to repair their broken irons. He had at least 15 broken irons with him when he moved into his first studio in 1980.

Cole often uses irons of various commercial brands in one work. The scorches resulting from their distinct surfaces create varying "masks" alluding to different African tribal associations. In Domestic I.D. IV (1992), he labels each "face" with its brand name, proposing the tribes of Silex and General Electric, for example. "This format is reminiscent of the Surrealist and Conceptual device of mislabeling compositional elements for ironic effect," writes Ms. Weitman in an article for MoMA magazine. "The window frame in the piece, with its obvious signs of wear, reinforces both the domestic, intimate reading of the individual scorches, and the sense of metaphorical history. The buckling paper reminds us of the violence of the searing heat Cole applied to imprint theses mythical faces, and adds an ominous and poignant overtone."

In the monumental work Sunflower (1994), Cole unites the decorative potential of his scorching with a powerful and evocative form. Imprinted on canvas that is backed with mattress padding and wood, this homage to Vincent van Gogh suggests a dynamic, pulsating shield, all the more potent because of the method of its creation. The scorching takes on a ritualistic dimension in this emblematic shape and enormous scale.

The four-by eight-foot print entitled Stowage (1997) is derived from a diagram of a slave ship Cole found in a childhood schoolbook. To create this work, he cut holes in the oversize wooden planks that comprise the printing block and inserted twelve different irons. Each face evokes a different African tribe that might have traveled in this massive vessel. The central plank was cut to accommodate an ironing board that represents the ship itself. Cole's expansive print integrates medium, form, and piercing social comment, and is further example of his inventive use of the medium.

In conjunction with the exhibition, Scorching, an 8-minute documentary video on Willie Cole by Yoland Skeet will be on view in the Monroe Wheeler Reading Room adjacent to the Print Galleries.

This exhibition is the second in the New Concepts in Printmaking series, presenting the work of contemporary artists who expand the boundaries of traditional printmaking. Each exhibition in the series is based on a recent acquisition to the collection. New Concepts in Printmaking 2: Willie Cole is made possible by generous grants from The Cowles Charitable Trust, Penny and David McCall, and The Contemporary Arts Council and The Junior Associates of The Museum of Modern Art.

Willie Cole
New Concepts in Printmaking 2
Kurator: Wendy Weitman